The WatchlistWatch 15
This is a Watchlist entry. It is a developing story reported by credible outlets that hasn't reached a court ruling, official finding or documented harm yet. It says what to watch for. If that happens, it moves to The Record.
Two Pentagon contractors, Musk and Luckey, named to steer a study of future warfare
Developing means: Reported by credible outlets, but no ruling, official finding or documented harm yet.
On Sept. 30, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth named SpaceX's Elon Musk, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to co-lead Project Meridian, a 120-day Pentagon study of the technologies and weapons the military will need, even though SpaceX and Anduril hold major Pentagon contracts.
What happened
Politico reported that current and former Pentagon officials warn the arrangement will produce conflicts of interest, with two of the department's biggest contractors helping to steer decisions that could benefit them, and Bill Hartung of the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight said Musk and Luckey should be treated as vendors. Both men are major Trump donors. Hegseth says Meridian is not meant to write strategy or policy but to identify the domains and capabilities the military must master, and that findings are due in about 120 days. Musk and Gingrich did not respond to Politico's requests for comment.
What to watch for
What the study recommends when it reports in about four months, whether the Pentagon publishes ethics rules or recusals for the co-leaders, and whether any contract or program that follows goes to SpaceX or Anduril. A report with published safeguards and no such award would take this off the list.
The administration's side
The Pentagon says the project will be led by MITRE, a nonprofit that runs federally funded research centers, which will be responsible for the analysis and recommendations and will apply "appropriate conflict-of-interest and information safeguards," with help from the department's chief technology officer, Emil Michael. Hegseth says the military is drawing on an advantage its adversaries lack, its innovators and technologists, to forecast tomorrow's conflicts, and Luckey told Axios that Americans do best when they bring their smartest scientists and engineers together on the hardest national security problems.
Sources
Permanent link: https://unredactedrecord.com/e/w-meridian/